AcceS-Ge CoViD-19

Accelerated structural genomics on proteins coded by the pathogen agent of CoViD-10 using in vivo macromolecular crystallography

We propose to clone all the proteins coded by the pathogen agent responsible for the CoViD-19, and to use these full lengths and domain-truncated forms in our pipeline for accelerated genomics. The pipeline relies on the growth of protein crystals in vivo and in cellulo, directly within mammalian cells. Through its elementary concept, it permits a speed up in protein crystallisation while keeping in a locked-down system. More information on the pipeline and its disponibilities will be communicated shortly.

Following expressions and crystal growth, the structures will be solved using serial crystallography approaches recently developed at synchrotron sources. Positive results will then serve as potential targets for the conception of new structure-based drugs. These progresses shall help understanding better the virus and its pathogenicity, necessary steps toward the conception of medical treatments of antiviral molecules against the larger family of coronaviruses, on the basis of the structural knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 at atomic resolutions.

Project evolution

Following are details of the key events in the course of the project, reported as short News hopefully self-explanatory. Through this approach, we hope to keep the larger community aware of the project advances.

May 29, 2020 - library of clones growing : Some more clones to add to our currently 30-ish constructs... soon going for transfection !!

May 15, 2020 - first cloning success : very happy that the first cloning trials were successful. While waiting to start the in vivo crystallisation screenings, we still need to work on the other genes !

May 6, 2020 - received the full genome from Codex : took 20 days to get the genome from abroad as no national labs were able to provide any... Big relief, now we can start to work!!

April 30, 2020 - project kick-off meeting : the three laboratories in collaboration for the project could meet for an efficient scheduling of the actions to come. This meeting allowed clarifying the short-term wishes from all consortium members.

April 10, 2020 - confirmation of the project acceptance : the ANR national agency officially announced the list of accepted projects. Causing mixed feelings of happiness and excitement, our project belongs to the list of lucky ones, first in line in the ANR official list. Now, we need to get moving on and organised for the work.

March 23, 2020 - submission of the AcceS-Ge CoViD-19 project : after a long series of drafting and corrections in the last two days before the submission deadline, a great relief while submitting the project on the official ANR website. Congratulations to all team members for this hard work!

March 6, 2020 - call for ANR FLASH-COVID-19 proposals : all the teams involved in the project, including INRAe and Sanofi, have been consulted to start drafting a project that would center on cloning all the proteins coded by the pathogen that causes CoViD-19 within the platform for in vivo crystallography implemented at the PROXIMA-1 and DISCO beamlines from Synchrotron SOLEIL.

Latest news

May 29, 2020 - library of clones growing : Some more clones to add to our currently 30-ish constructs... soon going for transfection !!